Those who use the stock market as a barometer to test the economy for signs of recovery are jubilant. Those who use the job market as their measuring tool are depressed. Some of us are wondering if these two segments of the population will ever find common ground again.

It’s perfectly understandable why we don’t feel that we are all in this economic morass together. If you happen to tune in on business news and view most of these experts on the economy, you can quickly observe their smugness and arrogance, as if they are looking down their noses at viewers who don’t seem to be able to get it through their heads that this slump is practically over and we’re all going to be home free. You can easily get the impression that being out of work at the very moment when they are putting forth their theory is downright un-American. While these folks are contending that as many jobs are being brought into the country as are being sent out, they are having a problem getting unemployed workers to believe it. Others seem to take offense that some folks are not interested in training for jobs that no longer exist in America. And while it’s certainly possible that the free market will create millions of new jobs, most folks won’t believe it until they see it. In other words, not only are many of us not on the same page, we’re not even reading out of the same book.